White Knight is a sumptuous story of the fantasy inherent in the second chance at romantic love and of the reality that time and distance takes exacting its toll in changing people and their circumstances. C.D. Reiss, true to form, presents us with two passionate erotic love affairs of the same couple 13 years apart, Catherine Barrington and Chris Carmichael. Liberally sprinkled throughout the narrative are references and metaphors of the rose, rose bushes and thorns.
Her use of rose metaphors and mentions became almost mystical to me because after awhile I swear I could smell the faint odor of roses as I read this captivating story of love won and lost. Perhaps the author was gifting us with some sacred and beautiful truth on which to hold by her frequent mention of and references to roses.
Allow me to digress…what have roses come to symbolize through the ages? In every “major religion” they have great significance. In ancient India the cosmic rose, known as Tripurasundari, symbolized the beauty, the strength, and the wisdom of the divine mother. In the temples of the Sumerian and Egyptian priests rosicrucian (cross and rose) symbols were already used many millenniums before the Christian era. In Hinduism and in many parts of the world, this is the flower of love and affection. In Islam roses are seen as symbols of the human soul so smelling them reminds them of their spirituality. The holy Zohar opens with the image of the Jewish nation likened to a beloved rose with 13 petals and 5 sepals. The Christian sees in the rose the beauty of the Garden of Eden, paradise, a world that reflected God’s design. In Catholicism, the scent of roses is considered the odor of sanctity and roses are associated with the Blessed Virgin as is the Rosary upon which Catholics pray.
World literature abounds with thematic metaphor and references to roses. Here too in reading the White Knight, we as readers are presented with a literary bouquet of an abundance of roses and the varied beautiful meanings ascribed to them which lift our hearts and souls above the ordinary. However, we need remember with roses come the thorns.
Interestingly enough… when we meet the older Catherine, she is setting fire to what is now known as the “thorn bushes”. They once were carefully tended rose bushes but have grown wild, tangled and thick. In some way I feel they represent Catherine’s heart which has itself grown wild, tangled and thick with the sadness, watered with nightly tears, she felt for 13 years at the loss of the boy/man Chris.
There is sublime magic in the telling of the young love of these two. There passion so new, so pure and innocent. The mutual discovery of their desire is so enchanting. Circumstances as they were then, ripped them apart. Chris a poor boy could offer Catherine a young heiress nothing but himself. Truly, that is all she really wanted. Chris more the realist of the two...while he loved Catherine desperately, he needed money and lots of it to feel valuable to her. The pursuit of money became his focus. From being a nobody and having nothing in New York, he became a billionaire hedge fund manager. Somewhere in the pursuit of wealth he lost himself and the purpose of his pursuit of wealth.
After a disastrous turn of events in his business and the desire to bury his faithful dog, Lance back in Barrington, he has returned and wants his Catherine back…whatever it takes. She does not want him. She is hurt beyond feeling the pain.
“It’s too late to ride in and rescue me. I don’t need a knight in shining armor anymore.” “Maybe I’m the one who needs to be rescued,” he whispered. “I can’t do that.” I pulled my arm down, and he let go. “I’m sorry. I can barely save myself.”
The story of their eventual reunion has Chris pricking himself on her thorns, this Catherine of the Roses, who still smells like roses. There is so much time that yawns between them. The tug and pull…the angst as they work out their feelings is engrossing…and surely it would not be a C.D. Reiss novel, if we did not get the erotic rekindling.
I was nearly blinded by the light made by their heat coming off the page…my ears were ringing for the blood rushing through my body while I read and the whole time… and I literally smelled the faint scent of roses!
Despite the pleasure they found in each other, Chris understands that he needs to do more and becomes even more than that romantic, sexy modern-day knight who will save the day as he woos his lady and proves to her his devotion. Having lived for money alone at one time which resulted in abject loneliness...he is now determined to claim his Catherine of the Roses no matter what it takes.
“A man could love a woman like that to death. A man could love a woman like that forever. A man could stand by a woman like that and watch her bloom. Water her. Tend her gently. Respect the thorns. Love the rose. A man could walk beside a woman like that the rest of his life.”
So, the gift of the love for him resembles a rose, his Catherine as he gifts her 749 roses. (These roses infinitely more valuable than dollars.) The reader is given the gift of renewed appreciation of this singularly precious, spiritual and beautiful flower, the rose and all it represents in this contemporary tale of the very modern, albeit uber romantic, "White Knight".
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- NicShef❤️ReadingReviewed in Australia on March 6, 2018
Wonderful second chance...
Format: KindleVerified Purchase - Lori WebberReviewed in Canada on March 8, 2018
She has also been waiting for her love Christopher to come back for her
Format: KindleVerified Purchase
